Audio QR Over Streaming Media

We describe a system that delivers a website address to a cellular phone by encoding inaudible binary data in an analogue audio signal, which is received by the microphone of the cellular phone. This is an alternative to encoding a web site address in a QR code label, which is scanned by the cellular phones camera.

Data embedding in the audio signal is done by modifying the phase of the signal's modulated complex lapped transform (MCLT) coefficients, while the perceived quality of the embedded audio signal remains the same as that of the original audio signal.

A whole system was implemented and tested both in simulation and in reality. The data rate achieved in reality at a distance of 1.5 meters was 48 bits per second. This rate is sufficient to deliver the same amount of information contained in a QR code label faster and easier than by camera scan.